How my own writing has changed since doing the proofreading and editing course
I’ve always considered myself to have a fairly good standard of written English. Spelling has never been much of an issue for me, and I have always had a fair idea of where commas and full stops are supposed to go.
A fair idea isn’t close to perfection, though. And whilst I would guess it’s unlikely that even the most experienced editor has a perfect grasp of written English, it has been a bit of an eye-opener to realise the simple mistakes that I have been making.
I was well aware that some of the ways I word things on my social media is not how I would word them if I was writing a book. But now, I am a lot more picky about my social media output. I often notice that I have missed a comma somewhere. For example, I might say “Can someone confirm the address of (XXX) please?” Previously, I would have left this sentence as it was. But now, I would put a comma before “please”.
I’m also more mindful in my usage of words. There are many words which we all use, that aren’t quite the right words for what the message is intended to convey. I have noticed that the word “because” is rarely used these days, and people tend to use the word “as” instead. “As” is only meant to be used in the context of a result or outcome being achieved. For example: “He was finally able to take a week’s holiday as the project had been completed.” The word “because” would not sound right in this context.
Dashes is another thing that I have learnt about. In the past, I used hyphens for practically everything that required a dash. In actuality, one is meant to use hyphens for linked words, eg middle-class, old-fashioned. There are three dashes: the hyphen, which is the shortest (-), the en dash, which is a bit larger (–), and the em dash, which is larger (—).
It’s actually the em dash which should be used to indicate a change of meaning or separation clause in a sentence. For example: “I did not say that—you are spreading lies and gossip.”
For the en dash, I will leave The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation to explain it, below.
The en dash is shorter than an em dash but longer than a hyphen. It has two main functions. One is to connect continuing, inclusive numbers.
Examples
pages 11–23
1969–1981
fiscal year 2020–21
The other function is to punctuate compound modifiers that include an open compound or two or more hyphenated compounds.
Examples
ice cream–flavored chewing gum (not ice-cream-flavored)
Canada–New Zealand flight (not Canada-New-Zealand)
pseudo-scientific–pseudo-psychiatric self-help theory (not pseudo-scientific-pseudo-psychiatric)
I am forever learning, and have noticed some edits I have made in books (and also noticed similar things in published material) that I will do differently next time. Delving into the world of written English is something that fascinates me. My standard of English has definitely improved.
